Texting While Driving Bill Passes First Hurdle

A new bill would make a fatal crash due to texting while driving a felony.

Credit Jason Weaver via Flickr

Under a new proposal, texting drivers could be hit with a felony if they’re involved in a fatal crash. But the newest texting while driving bill is meeting some resistance in the statehouse.

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It’s already illegal to text while driving in Florida, but Rep. Irv Slosberg (D-Delray Beach) thinks ratcheting up penalties will be a more effective deterrent. But Matt Willard from the Florida association of criminal defense attorneys says current law is broad enough to cover texting.

“We certainly don’t disagree that texting and driving or using a personal device is a bad idea,” Willard says. “However the law already covers this, there’s no need to add anything else. It’s part of what’s already out there as far as recklessly operating a motor vehicle, or you’re distracted, or not paying attention.”

Slosberg’s bill adds language about texting to the definition of vehicular homicide, making it a felony to cause a death while texting and driving.

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A bill imposing mandatory criminal penalties for killing someone while driving distractedly is headed to the House floor after it passed its final committee stop today. Although killing someone while driving is already a crime, the bill’s sponsor says the measure would make it easier for state attorneys to prosecute people.

It will soon be illegal to send text messages while driving in Florida. Gov. Rick Scott signed a texting-while-driving ban into law on Tuesday.

Texting will be a ticketable offense only if police catch people doing it while they’re pulled over for something else, like speeding. And Nancy Rasmussen, with the Florida Highway Patrol, said, police can’t look at phones without a search warrant, so it might be hard to tell whether someone’s texting or doing something like using a GPS.

According to the Washington, D.C.-based Transportation Research Board, 100 children are killed each year walking to and from school, and about 25,000 are injured.

"That’s a lot of kids. You know one of my jobs as a lawmaker is to protect those who can’t protect themselves, like our children, and that’s what this bill does,” said Boca Raton Democratic Representative Irv Slosberg.

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